9/20/09

As this is the first update posted, I'll just summarize what work has been completed to date. All non-original items installed in the car have been removed. The locker section from the donor caboose has been reinstalled and awaits some bondo work on the wood before the locker doors can be reinstalled. Both wood end platforms were very rotten, and have been removed. They will be rebuilt after the car is painted. One bay has been completely rebuilt. This involved removal of heavily damaged interior wood. Severe rust dmamge on the interior of the car body was then wire brushed and ground out. The torch cuts on the outside corners of the bay were cut out, and fresh steel plate welded in. The interior of the bay was then reassembled using what old pieces of wood could be salvaged, along with many new pieces of wood custom milled using the old rotten pieces as examples. The second bay has been similarrly dissembled, but rust damage isn't as bad. About half of the rust has been brushed or ground away. Most if the windows have been removed. I've welded flanges on the B end step wells to allow them to be reinstalled but remain removeable if they need to be whenever the car is moved again. I've also welded small flanges on the roof brackets for the marker lights and radio antenna. Theses flanges are drilled, allowing both roof brackets to be removeable. So far, the forcast for rain looks good, so I should have the car in paint before things turn rainy.

10/10/09

Big progress has been made. Rust remediation in the second bay is done. All surfaces were top coated with some random Rustoleum paint that I had in the garage. It'll all be hidden by the interior wood, so all that mattered was that the paint was decent quality, and I'm happy to clear off some shelf space. At some point in the car's history, a very poor wleding job was done on the exterior BL (B end, left side) corner of the bay. I've seen popcorn at the theater that looked better. I ground and smoothed the lousy weld, then touched the whole situation up with some bondo. I'm not worried about working every wave out of the car side, but a little bondo sure made it look better.

10/11/09

We brought home a pair of Heywood-Wakefield walkover seats for the bays today!!! They came from another SP caboose. They're a little rough, but I can tell they'll clean up just fine. For now, they live in the garage to keep the interior clear for rebuilding the second bay interior.

10/16/09

We got over 4" of rain in one day this week. I'm not happy. All windowless openings are tarped. I've done lots of research regarding paint and prep. If it's going to keep raining, I'll just have to wait until spring.

10/25/09

In the past week, I've decided what paint I'll use on the exterior, and decided to hire and industrial coating company to apply it. I don't feel like learning how to spray paint a train car, when the last train car that I painted was an Athern caboose...in 1992! The stakes are a little higher here. Today I completed drilling holes on the B end step wells allowing them to be removeable. If I can make progress this week (before the SP H&TS convention), I should be ready for paint by Friday.

11/2/09

We're getting close to being ready for paint. In the past few days, I milled the lumber and rebuilt the interior of the left side bay. I also removed all remaining windows and all window screens. All window openings have plywood covers screwed in place from the inside to protect the interior from paint overspray. Speaking of the heavy metal window screens- I had one of those little victories today. The screens are secured to the exterior of the car with hinges on the top and metal spring clips on the bottom. Many of the spring clips have rusted and broken. I have tried in vain to find a similiar clip at hardware stores, with no luck. Today while removing a screen, I noticed, "Ludwig Racine, WI" on one of the clips. It was barely visible through the rust. A quick internet search revealed the Ludwig Mfg. Co. is still in business in Racine, WI, and they still make my clips! As a result, I'll remove all the screen clips and replace them with new matching clips.

I noticed that the sheet metal tube that extends down from the roof into the car around the stove pipe was angled and touching the stove pipe. It's been this way since we bought the car. With it touching the stove pipe, radiant heat from the stove pipe could transfer to the car ceiling creating a fire hazard. What started as a brief effort to straighten the tube resulted in me removing it altogether- along with the entire assembly that screws to the roof and secures the stove pipe. I'll be able to straighten the tube out with the entire unit out of the car. I can then reinstall it and seal it up before the roof is painted.

Speaking of paint- it's ordered. We have a tentative date of this Saturday to start the process, weather permitting. In a nutshell, I have a lot to do before Saturday.

1/22/10

The 1353 is spending it's last winter in old paint covered by various tarps. I worked very, very hard through November to try to get the car in paint. In the end, it didn't happen. The atmospheric moisture brought on by early rain brought fog, which meant that it was far too humid to sandblast a giant steel object and leave it unprotected over night. The days seemed to get shorter all at once, and aftenoons just didn't get warm. Rather than risk the paint not working right, I decided to put the whole thing off until the spring. All the windows are out of the car, and the openings covered with plywood. The stove pipe assembly is reinstalled and re-sealed in the roof. I've built new wooden window frames for all exterior wooden windows, and a friend of mine in the glass business sourced new aluminum window frame material for the bay end windows. I completely refinished one of the walkover bay seats, the other is currently disassembled and I'm working on stripping and repainting it. The seat cushions are in San Jose at an upholstery shop that can work wonders. With the help of my mom, I located upholstery material that virtually matches the grain pattern from the cracked worn out stuff that was on the seat cushions. I drilled, tapped, welded, ground, sanded, brushed and smoothed all sorts of pieces, parts, and places. The paint is here, sitting in my garage. The car is ready, I'm just waiting on the weather.

6/30/10

WHERE'S THE PAINT??

It's now officially summer- why isn't the car in new paint? Well, we're on pause. I got seriously hurt at work over Memorial Day Weekend. I will make a full recovery, but for the time being, I'm confined to my bed. I want to be an active part of the prep and painting of the car, to ensure everything is done right. So, paint will have to wait a month or so more, until I'm allowed to get out of bed. I've been told the paint has a shelf life of one year, so I think we're still ok. Over the second half of the winter, I finished repainting both walkover seats. I also received the seat cushions from the upholstery shop. The seats look great with new paint and upholstery. I'm still looking for three seat bases, but at least I can position the lower cushion on the frame for a visually complete seat. Just before I got hurt, I began stripping paint from one of the wooden end doors. It looks to me that I'll be able to rebuild the original door, meaning I won't have to completely replace it. I chemically stripped two layers of daylight orange, followed by a layer of silver, and then a layer of bright red. Very cool paint archeology chronicalling the three paint schemes the car wore. Speaking of archeology, one day in May, I was fiddling with the stove and coal bunker in the car. The coal bunker still contains quite a bit of coal. Something caught my eye, and I began to dig through the coal with my claw hammer. I uncovered several old disposable paper cups. Each cup bears a safety slogan and small picture. Obviously, whoever drank water from these cups many years ago then threw them into the coal bin for disposal. A retired SP conductor friend of mine recognized the cups right away as being the style dispensed in all SP cabooses. Since then, I located and purchased a proper vintage cup dispenser to outfit the car with.

I know that I desperately need to update the picture albums here on the website! Since I'm stuck in bed, that's on my list of things to do very soon.

7/31/10

I'm still recovering from my injury, so no new paint yet. Hopefully, by mid-August I'll be allowed to bear weight on my very broken leg. In the meantime, I've been researching the stencils for lettering the car. My intent is to have everything lined up so that when I'm cleared to get involved, the car gets painted, lettered, and receives new windows all at once. I've also drafted a plan to move the car on our property and place it on a section of track.

9/6/11

HOW IS IT THAT A YEAR HAS PASSED??  I don't know. I can't post updated photos. Chantel is trying to figure out the glitch. The 1353 has new paint! It was completely repainted last fall, and spent a winter safely wrapped in new paint. I've also successfully stripped and repainted the bay interiors and the B end seat and door area. The B end door has been completely stripped, repaired, repainted and reinstalled. I've installed all but a couple of the windows in the car, and they look great. This summer, I cut a new pad to position the car upon. I layed 14 tons of ballast as a substrate, installed 27 ties and as of this writing, I've spiked 16' of 80 lb rail. I hope to place the car on its trucks on this new section of track by the first rain this fall.

10/23/11

Our new track is complete. I completed it last week by hand shoveling 8 tons of ballast on top of the 14 original tons. I should have borrowed a tractor! The caboose is scheduled to be put back on its trucks on the new track this coming Tuesday. I also received some custom made window tracks for the sliding bay windows so they should be in as soon as the car is on the new track. Still no new pics. The whole website picture thing frustrates me. The next project for the car will be to refinish the interior around the conductor desk, and install my full sized signal outside along the new track.